Australia's high rates of antibiotics overuse revealed in Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care report

Australia must curb its high rates of inappropriate antibiotic use or risk the rise of superbugs that could send us back to the dark ages before modern medicine, experts say.

The first national report of antimicrobial use and resistance found almost half of all Australians in the community were prescribed antibiotics at least once in 2014, but a huge proportion didn't need them.

In Australia's hospitals on any given day more than one-third of patients were given antibiotics, with almost half either inappropriately prescribed or flouting guidelines, an Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care report released on Thursday found.

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Senior medical adviser Professor John Turnidge warned Australia would be prone to more deadly superbugs if the antibiotics tap that fed antimicrobial resistance was left running.

"We should all be very concerned. We are already seeing superbugs in the community ... and outbreaks in hospital wards, where the amount of time and energy just to save those people's lives is huge," Professor Turnidge said.

"What we forget is we can't even do modern medicine without antibiotics. Many treatments for cancer patients and neonates and all of those kinds of things depend on antibiotics working," Professor Turnidge said.

"None of us want to go back to the dark days of medicine.

An automated imaging and analysis system which can ''read'' microbiology culture plates faster than a human is behind a sharp jump in the share price of LBT Innovations.Credit:Jamie Smetkowski

"It's easy to turn our back on it, but if we don't address antibiotic use we will end up back there and people will be dying who otherwise could be saved," he said.

"And it will be the young people dying of untreatable infections because there won't be any treatments," he said.

The highest rates of antibiotics use in the community were among children up to nine years old and people over 65, with GPs accounting for the vast majority (88 per cent) of all antibiotics prescriptions, found the report that integrated data from a range of national reporting systems and health data collection organisations.

In residential aged care facilities more than one in 10 residents were on some sort of antibiotic, but less than five percent had a suspected or confirmed infection, and one in five prescriptions were written for people with no signs or symptoms of infection.

More than half of people with colds or other upper respiratory infections were prescribed antibiotics, despite the drugs being powerless against viruses.

An NPS Medicinewise survey of 1000 Australians released on Thursday found more than one-third of people who went to the doctor when they or their child had a cold or flu-like symptoms expected to be prescribed antibiotics.

"It's such an ingrained belief in the community that all infections are caused by bacteria and require antibiotics when in fact most respiratory infections, around 95 per cent, are caused by virus, and in these instances antibiotics give you nothing but side effects," Professor Turnidge said.

Australia was the biggest user of antibiotics in the community, scored against six comparable countries (England, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands), according to the report.

In a wider analysis including 28 countries across Europe, Australia was ranked the sixth biggest user of antibiotics outside hospitals.

Australian federal and state governments, in partnership with the commission, were deploying surveillance and a national alert system to monitor antimicrobial use and resistance.

Improvements were already evident, with inappropriate prescribing for respiratory tract infections decreasing from 33 per cent in 2011-2012 to 29 per cent in 2013-2014, suggesting programs designed to inform prescribers and monitor use were starting to work.

"Although reducing antibiotic use is one strategy, we've got to have better hygiene infection control. All of these things have to be done," Professor Turnidge said.

He also recommended boosting community education, potentially in schools, and awareness campaigns to wean the public off its perceived need for antibiotics.

The chief executive of NPS Medicinewise, Dr Lynn Weekes, said the report should be a wake-up call to individuals and prescribers.

"When we are facing a future where antibiotics may no longer work when we need them," Dr Weeks said.

"This data is crucial in helping health professionals, policymakers and consumers alike to understand that they each play a part in making sure these life-saving medicines continue to work both now and in the future."